Howard Bloom

Starts off very interestingly, discussing how biological behaviors influence history and how humans aren't quite as removed from our origins as we'd like to think.
Curiously, the last quarter of the book takes a turn to some very anti-Islamic material and raises troubling questions which will probably offend multi-cuturalists.

A sprawling, playful, sometimes quixotic exploration of how our DNA has manifested -- necessarily, Bloom argues -- capitalism. Rather than arguing the relative merits and pitfalls in the system or pitting it against socialism -- a tired matchup these days -- he shows the psychological, sociological, even genetic and physical origins of the economic system that arguably dominates the globe. The book closes with an impassioned plea for those who have benefited most from the capitalist system show more to use their bounty to help those who are the least among us. Setting aside my personal bias against capitalism gone wild and my prejudice against libertarianism, the book is a rollicking read and makes its points with a great deal of joy. show less

It is amazing what a person can get away with under the pretense of science. Mr. Bloom certainly evinces his bigotry of Islam, the "Islamic world" and Arabs under the guise science. The Lucifer Principle is merely a vehicle to support a political agenda disguised as science. This is not too surprising since it comes from a political writer.

To extrapolate societal and human behavior from animal behaviour is a large logical leap that can't be proved, but merely inferred. While genetics show more influences behaviour, within a species, it is questionable whether it carries over to other species higher up the phylogenetic scale, and certainly to humans, where geography, environment and culture play a big role in behavior. Thus, Bloom’s assertion that what is observed in lower phyla directly contributes to killer cultures of the Islamic world.

Show me the data? Regarding killer cultures, Bloom spends significant page space to point out that Arabs by nature have a blood lust, and that Islam justifies the blood lust. Are there not other killer cultures? What about violence in Norse culture, Aryan culture, Mongol culture, and now American culture? How about in his own Jewish culture? Certainly the Old Testament is replete with genocide, justified as God’s will and sanction for the Israelites.

Both Arabs and Jews descend from the same father, Abraham. If violence is in the genes, as Bloom argues, then why are Jews exculpated from possessing a killer culture, but Arabs are not? Certainly history has shown the old kings of Judaism wiped out whole tribes for not believing in the same God as them (see Karen Armstrong's Holy War). But forget about the past, we only need to look at America, coming off of the Newtown, CT tragedy. Despite the mass slaughter of children, we as a society are not willing to give up our “right to carry” military assault rifles for hunting and self-protection. I would submit that more people were killed in America by domestic abuse, homicide, drugs, and other forms of violence than by Islamic terrorists. In fact more civilian people in Pakistan (30,000) have been killed by America since 9/11 than actual Americans killed from 9/11.

Bloom asserts that Islamic cultures in particular glorify violence, yet how much violence is depicted in our most prevelant cultural medium, television? We glorify violence. This nation was built on violence (ask the American Indian, or the Black man-see Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the US) and we promote violence through TV-here's a meme for you. And despite this violence, we export it to the third world, whether they like it or not (see Ben Barber's Jihad vs. McWorld).

Bloom asserts that Islamic fundamentalism/terrorism is the consequence of one meme "nibbling at the flesh" of other cultures. Yet the violence of American cultural meme has had a far more pernicious effect on the Islamic world than the Islamic world on the West. So which superorganism "nibbles at the flesh" of which superorganism?


The author faults Muslim’s for reacting to European invasion during the Crusades citing it as an example typifying Muslim behavior. Islamic distrust of European culture (whether from the Crusades or European colonialism) is therefore over-reaction.

The Crusades, after all, was really about Christian Europeans reclaiming what was rightfully theirs. Regardless of the fact Europeans are from Europe, they have superior claim to the Middle East because Christianity and Judaism arose out of the Middle-East. Well, where did Islam arise from? Europe?

Bloom cannot excuse the Crusades as an attempt at reinstituting "Western" values in a region that was formerly Christian. And I am not sure what Western values Christians were inculcating since they slaughtered the Jews when they took Jerusalem, and sacked Constantinople during the Crusades. Or the fact that Constantinople beseeched the Muslims of Egypt for aid against European Franks. Conflating Christianity with Western-secular values is erroneous. Christian Arabs are culturally equivalent Muslim Arabs, eating and dressing the same, speaking the same language (and even referring to God as Allah). Similarly, Bloom cannot excuse the racist mentality of European colonials in the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent – yet he does. The complete subjugation, denigration, and massacre of whole populations in Algeria, India-Pakistan, the Levant warrants the ire by these peoples towards the European colonials.

People seem to get all upset when Muslims try to acknowledge their cultural heritage and value sets; perceiving as expressing fundamentalist beliefs. They fear the Islamic meme will overtake America. Despite such absurdities, we continue to pass anti-Sharia laws, block the building of mosques and cultural centers (like the Ground Zero “mosque”, produce truly hateful and bigoted videos against Muslims, and even books like the instant one, to keep a meme of fear and distrust alive. I would argue this type of meme is just as insidious as any killer culture meme.

I don't disagree that virulent memes spread across religions, and Islam certainly has its share. But so do all other religions. Singling out one religion and one broad set of people (Muslims, Arabs, etc. to the exclusion of the rest of humanity is misleading and intellectually dishonest. I think Howard Bloom just does not like Muslims and Islam, and thats okay, but he should have the honesty to apply his logic universally, not just to the group he does not like. show less

This was one of those books that I spent a good amount of time feeling like I'd read before, as it echos feelings and beliefs that I've developed independently. The first part of the book lays out some interesting theory about memes and the social organism and effectively maps the Darwinian struggle for survival to societies as a whole. The second half read as an impeachment of both Islamic and to a lesser degree American society, and while the events of 9/11/2001 certainly contribute an show more interesting light to the arguments they came off rather ethnocentric. I am excited to read his later works as the frontier he recommends for global unity (space) is likely replaced by the development of the internet and it's unifying forces. Definitely recommended!! show less